Dies to Removal

[deck]Kurkesh v1.0[/deck]
1) I went with a proliferate theme in the deck. Contagion Engine in particular gets out of hand really fast with Kurkesh on the field. Proliferating Mindless Automaton or Thopter Squadron gets a bit silly. I could go really deep and play Inkmoth Nexus I suppose.
2) There's a small Valakut theme going on with Vesuva and Thespian's Stage being able to copy it and make incoming Mountains do massive damage.
3) There's an interesting interaction with Mycosynth Lattice, Kurkesh, and the red creatures and lands. Since the lattice makes everything artifacts, I can copy activations from things like Buried Ruin, Strip Mine, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, and Rimescale Dragon. Cute, but worth noting.
4) Also note Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast or Hellkite Tyrant. Evil.
5) Braid of Fire seems REALLY strong in this deck, especially with the proliferate theme.
6) Kurkesh + Magistrate's Scepter + a recursion engine is a hard lock in multiplayer and of course there's Mindslaver to take control of multiple opponents! EDIT: I decided to take Scepter out of the deck because it seems lame.
7) Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are in the deck for when I eventually acquire Top, Crucible, and Scroll Rack. I'll also want to put in red fetches if we're being persnickety.

I have also included a bonus 10-ticket MODO Special list!

[deck=Kurkesh MTGO 10-Ticket Special!!!]
Commander (1)
1 Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

Creatures (18)
1 Toymaker
1 Walking Atlas
1 Burnished Hart
1 Goblin Replica
1 Myr Propagator
1 Mindless Automaton
1 Voltaic Construct
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Thopter Squadron
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Triskelion
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Grim Poppet
1 Hellkite Igniter
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelavus

Artifacts (39)
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Orochi Hatchery
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Lodestone Bauble
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Codex Shredder
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Expedition Map
1 Mana Vault
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Skullclamp
1 Voltaic Key
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Culling Scales
1 Throne of Geth
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Mimic Vat
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Barrin's Codex
1 Clock of Omens
1 Lux Cannon
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Skyship Weatherlight
1 Trading Post
1 Unwinding Clock
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Predator, Flagship
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Caged Sun
1 Contagion Engine
1 Planar Portal
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Darksteel Forge

Red spells (4)
1 Vandalblast
1 Magmaquake
1 Starstorm
1 Blasphemous Act

Lands (38)
1 Buried Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Great Furnace
1 Kher Keep
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Urza's Mine
1 Urza's Power Plant
1 Urza's Tower
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
25 Mountain
[/deck]

Just realized I should probably be running the Urza lands.

Looks fun but I feel like there has got to be some more exciting artifact creatures for you to mess around with

I feel the same way. Need to do more searching on magiccards.info to find some good ones. Right now I'm a bit light on creatures.

Some creatures to consider:

[cards]Deal Broker
Goblin Replica
Grim Poppet
Myr Propagator
Scarecrone
Triskelavus
Toymaker
Voltaic Construct
Walking Atlas[/cards]

Toymaker + Voltaic Construct + Basalt Monolith =

Other cards to consider:

[cards]Culling Scales
Astral Cornucopia
Blinkmoth Urn
Dreamstone Hedron
Extraplanar Lens
Gilded Lotus
Mana Vault
Sol Ring
Thran Dynamo[/cards]

Mana rocks seem necessary here because it looks like the deck is so mana hungry. You can't copy the mana abilities with Kurkesh, but you CAN copy abilities that untap the rocks.

What about Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk? Kuldotha Forgemaster + Kurkesh can fetch them both at once.

If you can think of more two-card combos like that, I think those are really strong with Kurkesh. He can turn all artifact-based tutors (planar portal, Forgemaster, etc.) into double tutor. Another one that comes to mind is Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth.

I think you definitely want Gilded Lotus, since it + Volatic Key + Kurkesh is infinite.

You also probs want Goblin Welder.

Forge and Disk are already in the deck, as are Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth.

Definitely want Goblin Welder.

If I'm going to run Valakut and Mimic Vat I may as well run Sad Robot.

Sry for the redundant suggestions, I skimmed through quickly

Made some changes. Took out the Scrying Sheets and Snow-Covered Mountains for now. Will invest in those later. Added a lot of the cards I mentioned earlier and took out some of the low impact cards that were in the deck.

Kurkesh is currently not working as intended on MTGO (surprise, surprise). His ability doesn't trigger when you activate artifact abilities that require you to sacrifice the artifact. Just FYI.

Bumped for my transitional list.

What about volt charge?

It's an extra proliferate, and it can come as a cheap surprise.

It just doesn't have quite enough impact. There's also times when you just don't have anything with counters on the board! Lots of artifact sweepers in EDH.

I have actually only piloted this deck a few times. It can get a bit durdly in multiplayer games and no one likes watching their opponent durdle for 5 minutes, and there are a lot of times where I can't help but do that to get the engine going. Just a heads up to anyone wanting to try this deck. You might need a few reps to really get comfortable with it.