Commander blueprint · Star Trek · Preview

How to build Kira Nerys, Firebrand

Kira Nerys turns any creature that enters during your combat into an attacker, and one that enters after blockers are chosen has no blocker. So this build makes its creatures at instant speed and waits for the blocks.

Art by Pauline Voss

Kira switches on when attackers are declared and stays on until combat ends

The replacement checks one thing at the moment a creature would enter: do you control an attacking creature. Before attackers are declared you do not, so a token made in your main phase or at the beginning of combat is an ordinary token, untapped and unable to attack without haste. From the declare attackers step on you do, and the answer stays yes until the end of combat step is over. On an opponent's turn you control no attackers, so a flash creature cast there enters untapped and can block like any other.

Kira does not have to be one of the attackers. Any attacking creature you control switches the ability on, so when an opponent holds a deathtouch blocker, or you want a 4/3 at home, send a token in alone and keep her back. Everything you make that combat still arrives attacking, and she still gives each arrival +1/+1.

The window has a wrong end as well as a right one. Creatures stay attacking through the combat damage step and the end of combat step, after the damage has been dealt. A creature flashed in then enters tapped and attacking, deals nothing, and stays tapped through every opponent's turn until your next untap step. If what you want is a blocker for the next round, cast it in your second main phase or during an opponent's turn.

Each arrival also picks its own target. You choose which opponent, or which of their planeswalkers, it is attacking as it enters, and it does not have to follow the creature that caused it, so a creature cast after blocks can go at the player nobody else is attacking.

A creature that arrives after blocks has nothing in front of it

Blocks are chosen once, in the declare blockers step, and a creature that was not on the battlefield then was never blocked. That makes the declare blockers step the moment for everything in this section: wait until every opponent has committed, then make the creatures. Each arrives tapped, attacking and unblocked, and Kira's second ability makes a 1/1 token a 2/2 on the way in.

Three instants do it with tokens. Raise the Alarm makes two 1/1 Soldiers for . Secure the Wastes makes X 1/1 Warriors for . Grand Crescendo makes X 1/1 Citizens for and gives your creatures indestructible until end of turn, so the attackers that were blocked survive their blocks as well. Six creatures have flash printed on them: Cathar Commando, Resolute Reinforcements, which brings a Soldier token with it, Selfless Spirit, Restoration Angel, Archangel Avacyn and Saavik, Stoic Student. Castle Ardenvale makes a 1/1 Human for and a tap at instant speed, so a spare land is an unblocked attacker every turn. Winding Canyons and Vedalken Orrery extend the same timing to every other creature in the list.

Two creatures turn those instants into more bodies. Monastery Mentor makes a Monk whenever you cast a noncreature spell and Young Pyromancer makes an Elemental whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, so a Swords to Plowshares on a blocker after blocks also adds an unblocked 2/2. Captain Jean-Luc Picard does the same for creature spells. Each one you cast makes a 1/1 Officer, and the Officer arrives before the spell resolves, so a flash creature cast after blocks is two new attackers, and his anthem makes both of them bigger.

Goldnight Commander is the card that turns this into a kill. Each time another creature you control enters, your creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn. Cast Secure the Wastes for four after blocks with it out and four Warriors arrive together, so Goldnight triggers four times and every creature you control gets +4/+4. Each Warrior is then a 6/6 that nobody blocked, 24 damage from one instant before counting anything that was already in the attack.

Blinking a blocked attacker brings it back unblocked

A creature that is exiled and returned is a new object, with no memory of the combat it left. Under Kira it comes back tapped and attacking, and because the blocks are over it comes back unblocked, with another +1/+1 and its enter ability again. The creature that blocked it stays where it is, blocking nothing. Ephemerate and Cloudshift do this for , and Restoration Angel does it as a flash creature that arrives attacking itself. Archangel Avacyn handles the other kind of bad block: flashed in, she arrives attacking and gives your creatures indestructible until end of turn, so nothing dies to the blockers either.

The one condition is easy to miss. The returning creature looks for another attacker as it enters, and the creature you blinked is not one any more. If it was the only creature attacking, it comes back untapped at home instead. With Kira or a single token also in the attack there is always a second attacker, so a blink on a lone attacker is the case to watch for.

The best targets are creatures whose value is the entry. Resolute Reinforcements brings another Soldier, Inspiring Overseer draws another card, Excalbian Gamemaster makes another set of Officers and Saavik deals her damage again, and each of those new arrivals is attacking too. Ephemerate's rebound copy is cast in your next upkeep, before any attack, so that second blink is only for the enter ability.

Saavik kills a blocker, and the creature she frees should have trample

Saavik, Stoic Student has flash, and when she enters she deals X damage to an attacking or blocking creature an opponent controls, where X is the number of creature types among the non-Borg creatures you control. Cast after blocks, she arrives as an attacker and removes a blocker. She is only a 2/2 for , so the damage is the reason to cast her, and Kira gives her +1/+1 on the way in like any other arrival. The catch is the creature that was blocked. It stays blocked after its blocker dies, and a blocked creature without trample deals no damage to the player. Kira has trample, so the blocker in front of her is the one to aim at, and with nothing left blocking her all of her damage goes through.

X adds up quickly in this list. Kira alone is two types, Bajoran and Soldier, Saavik counts her own Vulcan and Advisor, and the tokens here are Soldiers, Warriors, Humans, Citizens, Monks, Elementals, Goblins and Officers. Mirror Entity is the card to keep away from her. Changeling makes it every creature type, Borg included, so it adds nothing to the count, and its ability gives all of your creatures every creature type until end of turn. Activate it first and everything that was on the battlefield is a Borg for the turn, so Saavik counts only herself and whatever entered after the pump. Cast her, then pump.

Attack triggers that used to leave their tokens at home

Some of the best token makers in these colours create their tokens when something attacks, and normally those tokens sit out the combat that made them. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin is the plainest case. When he attacks he takes a +1/+1 counter and makes Goblins equal to his power, and without help they cannot attack, because attackers were chosen before they existed. Under Kira they enter tapped and attacking with +1/+1 each. Myrel, Shield of Argive makes a 1/1 Soldier for each Soldier you control when she attacks, and Kira is a Soldier, so with the two of them out that is at least two attackers for nothing. Rabble Rousing makes a 1/1 Citizen for each creature you attacked with, which under Kira doubles the attack. Captain James T. Kirk can make a 1/1 Officer each time he attacks, and Sun Titan returns a permanent card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard as it attacks, so a dead Adeline or Monastery Mentor comes back attacking.

None of these arrivals counts as having attacked. They are attacking creatures that were never declared, so they trigger nothing that cares about attacking: a Goblin from Krenko does not set off Myrel, and the Citizens do not count toward the next Rabble Rousing trigger. Windbrisk Heights asks whether you attacked with three or more creatures, and only the declared ones count for that as well.

Hero of Bladehold, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Brimaz, King of Oreskos already make their tokens attacking, so Kira adds only her +1/+1. Brimaz even loses something to her. His token is meant to arrive attacking and untapped, with vigilance, but Kira's replacement still applies to it, so it enters tapped like everything else.

Everything that joins the attack is still tapped on your opponents' turns

This is the price of the commander, and the list has to pay it. Kira's replacement is not optional, so every creature made in combat enters tapped, and it stays tapped until your next untap step. A turn that ends with twenty creatures can end with three of them untapped, and each opponent gets a turn before the rest can block. Hold back when the table is racing you. A flash creature cast during the last opponent's turn enters untapped, and it is a better blocker there than the same card spent in your combat.

The protection in the list is aimed at the turn after the big attack. Teferi's Protection, Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, Grand Crescendo, Selfless Spirit and Archangel Avacyn all keep a wide board alive through a wipe, and Deflecting Swat sends a single removal spell somewhere else.

Extra combats work, with one limit. A creature that entered attacking has not attacked, and it arrived this turn, so without haste it cannot be declared as an attacker in a later combat. Aurelia, the Warleader, Combat Celebrant and Moraug, Fury of Akoum give you another combat with the creatures you started the turn with, and that second combat is a second window, with every attack trigger firing again. The untaps help the defence as well. Moraug untaps all of your creatures at the start of each extra combat, the first combat's arrivals included, so they end the turn untapped even though they cannot attack. Aurelia and Combat Celebrant untap your creatures as attackers are declared, and that trigger goes on the stack beside the ones from Krenko, Myrel and Hero of Bladehold. Put the untap on the stack first so it resolves last, and the tokens those triggers made are untapped too.

Each arrival pays out before it deals any damage

The other half of the list watches for creatures entering and does not care when. Impact Tremors deals 1 damage to each opponent per creature, Warleader's Call deals 1 and gives your team +1/+1, and Purphoros, God of the Forge deals 2. With all three out every arrival is 4 damage to every opponent, so the four Warriors from Secure the Wastes are 16 to each of them before combat damage. Cathars' Crusade puts a +1/+1 counter on each of your creatures per arrival, which keeps what Kira's pump only lends. Anointed Procession doubles every token, and Divine Visitation turns each creature token into a 4/4 flying Angel with vigilance that still arrives tapped and attacking.

Guinan, Ancient Advisor keeps the gains for good. For and a tap she puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control that entered this turn, and draws you a card if two or more get one. Use her at the end of combat or in your second main phase, once everything has arrived. Her cost has a tap symbol, so she needs to have been on the battlefield since your turn began: cast her a turn ahead of the attack, because a Guinan cast that turn cannot tap, and one that arrives during the attack is tapped already.

Four cards turn arrivals into cards. Idol of Oblivion draws for a tap on any turn you have made a token, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist draws at each end step after you have, and Mentor of the Meek and Welcoming Vampire draw when a creature with power 2 or less enters. Kira's +1/+1 never stops those two, because it is a trigger and a 1/1 token is still a 1/1 as it enters. Anthems do stop them. Warleader's Call and Captain Jean-Luc Picard each give +1/+1 while the token is entering, so with both on the battlefield every new token is a 3/3 and neither creature draws. With one of them out a token enters as a 2/2, which still counts.

Worf, Intelligence Contractor borrows creatures, and a borrowed creature never enters

Not every Star Trek card that looks made for Kira is. Worf, Intelligence Contractor takes a creature with mana value 3 or less from each opponent until end of turn, untaps them and gives them haste, and none of them enters the battlefield. They change control where they stand, so neither of Kira's abilities sees them. Troubling Tribbles copies itself at the start of each of your upkeeps, before anything is attacking, and the copies cannot block, which is the wrong half of the turn and the wrong weakness for this deck. U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Free Spirit makes three Officers as it enters and then wants your creatures tapped at sorcery speed to station it, which spends the creatures and the mana this list keeps for combat.

The Star Trek cards that did make the list all do something in the window. Kirk, Commanding Officer exiles the top card of your library whenever you attack while your creatures have 8 or more total power, and you can play that card this turn, so an instant or a flash creature off the top goes straight into the gap after blocks. Excalbian Gamemaster makes an Officer for each differently named land you control, and fifteen of the lands here have names of their own and stay on the battlefield, beside Plains and Mountain, so most land drops add one. Cast after blocks through Vedalken Orrery or Winding Canyons, every Officer arrives attacking.

Thirty-one white sources, and most of the mana is spent in combat

Thirty-five lands, 17 of them basics split ten Plains to seven Mountains, carry a curve that averages 3. Twenty-six enter untapped, seven more do under a condition the list usually meets, and only Needle Spires and Windbrisk Heights always enter tapped. White is the main colour. Its 31 sources give 95.7% to have one by turn two, but two by turn three is 83.9%, and that is the pair Adeline and Brimaz ask for on curve. Red has 26 sources, 92.1% for one by turn two, and only Aurelia and Moraug want two red, both at six mana, where the chance is 88%.

The habit the deck asks for is passing the main phase with mana up. A turn where you cast nothing before combat and then spend five mana after blocks is the normal turn here, not the slow one. Pearl Medallion makes every white spell cost one less, which covers most of the instants and flash creatures, and Castle Ardenvale and Winding Canyons give a land something to do with its mana when there is no trick to cast. Smothering Tithe pays out in Treasure, and Treasure keeps, so the mana it makes on opponents' turns waits for your combat.

Two Game Changers set the floor, and Myrel is the card to mention first

Teferi's Protection and Smothering Tithe are the list's only Game Changers, so the core list's floor is bracket 3, with no mass land denial and no extra turns anywhere in it. Goblin Bombardment is a free sacrifice outlet, and nothing in the list can be sacrificed and come straight back, so it has no loop to finish. The card worth raising in the pre-game conversation is Myrel, Shield of Argive. During your turn your opponents cannot cast spells or activate abilities of artifacts, creatures or enchantments, which shuts off instant-speed removal and combat tricks for the whole of your attack. That is fair at bracket 3, and some tables still want to know before it lands.

The core list

Kira Nerys, Firebrand and the 99 behind her, aimed at bracket 3. Point at any name for a picture of the card. Prices are for the least expensive paper printing of each card.

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The budget rung keeps every instant, and bracket 4 multiplies what they make

The budget rung brings the total from at least $517.70 to at least $140.95, and almost none of that money was in the instants. Raise the Alarm, Secure the Wastes, Grand Crescendo, Ephemerate and Cloudshift all stay, so this list still makes creatures after blocks and still blinks blocked attackers. What it gives up is flash for everything else. Vedalken Orrery and Winding Canyons go, so the creatures without flash of their own are main phase cards again, and Glorious Protector, a 3/4 flyer with flash, and Kher Keep, which makes a 0/1 Kobold at instant speed that Kira turns into a 1/2, take their places. Myrel becomes Hanweir Garrison, whose two Humans already arrive attacking, Purphoros becomes Witty Roastmaster at 1 damage per arrival instead of 2, and Anointed Procession becomes Assemble the Legion. Both Game Changers leave, Teferi's Protection for Unbreakable Formation and Smothering Tithe for Commander's Sphere, and with them goes the bracket floor. Arid Mesa and Windswept Heath give way to Wind-Scarred Crag and Bajor, two lands that enter tapped. Bajor is from Star Trek too, so it waits for 13 November with the other seven and has no price yet, which keeps this total a minimum as well.

The bracket 4 rung costs $1,286.74 or more, and four more Game Changers take the count to six, so its floor is bracket 4: Ancient Tomb, The One Ring, Jeska's Will and Enlightened Tutor beside the core list's two. Most of the rest goes on multiplying the arrivals. Mondrak, Glory Dominus doubles every token, the same as Anointed Procession, and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation triples every creature token, and the three stack. With all of them out, Secure the Wastes for three after blocks makes thirty-six Warriors, each a 2/2 that nobody blocked and each a trigger for every enter ability on the battlefield. Sneak Attack is the other new card. For it puts a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield at instant speed, so after blocks it is an unblocked attacker that costs one mana, sacrificed at the end step. Use it on a creature whose value is the entry, Excalbian Gamemaster or Restoration Angel, and the Officers or the blink stay after the creature is gone. Enlightened Tutor finds whichever artifact or enchantment the game needs, Vedalken Orrery and Cathars' Crusade included. Room comes from Needle Spires, two mana rocks, Wrenn's Resolve and four creatures, Brimaz among them. This version ends games in one combat from a board that looked like four creatures, and a table expecting bracket 3 should hear that before the game starts.

FAQ

Do creatures that enter attacking with Kira Nerys trigger attack abilities?

No. They are attacking, but they were never declared as attackers, so nothing that triggers when a creature attacks sees them. A Goblin from Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin does not trigger Myrel, Shield of Argive, the Citizens from Rabble Rousing do not count toward its next trigger, and Windbrisk Heights counts only the creatures you declared.

Can a creature that enters after blockers are declared be blocked?

No. Blocks are declared once, and a creature that was not on the battlefield when they were cannot be blocked that combat. Under Kira Nerys anything you make in the declare blockers step enters tapped, attacking and unblocked. Make it before blocks and it can be blocked like any other attacker. Make it after combat damage and it arrives tapped with nothing left to do.

Does Kira Nerys need to attack for her ability to work?

No. The replacement only asks whether you control an attacking creature, and any attacker will do. A single token attacking is enough to send everything you make that combat in after it, which lets Kira stay home as a 4/3 blocker when attacking with her is a bad idea.

Does Kira Nerys do anything on an opponent's turn?

Her +1/+1 does. Any creature that enters under your control gets it until end of turn, whoever's turn it is. The replacement almost never applies, because you control no attacking creatures on another player's turn, so a flash creature cast then enters untapped and can block.

When can I play Kira Nerys, Firebrand in Commander?

Star Trek is released on 13 November 2026, and she can go into a Commander deck from that day. The six other new Star Trek cards in this list share that date, while the older ones, Sacred Foundry among them, have been playable for years.

How much does this Kira Nerys deck cost?

At preview-season prices, counting the cheapest paper copy of each card, the core list is at least $517.70, with 94 of its 100 cards priced. Cut down to the budget rung it is at least $140.95. Built up to bracket 4 it is at least $1,286.74. All three are minimums, because six of the Star Trek cards here have no price yet. The single dearest card is Deflecting Swat, and the budget rung drops it along with Anointed Procession and Smothering Tithe, the next two.

Is Kira Nerys, Firebrand good?

For three mana she is a 4/3 trampler who makes every creature after her bigger, which is a fair rate on its own. How good she gets depends on how many creatures the deck can make once blocks are declared. A list that makes its tokens in the main phase gets only the +1/+1 from her. One built around instants, flash and attack triggers gets a second wave of unblocked attackers every turn, and that is the version this page builds.