Monday MtG: Away Decks Reprise

I've written about these away decks before.  Of the three decks, the UW and BG decks have only seen small changes, but the R deck has been torn down to the lands and rebuilt almost entirely.  This rebuild is due to both my continual dissatisfaction with it and the great card discussions in the FB Group Budget Magic.

The premise is still the same: A monored burn deck for a creature-heavy meta, where most games have 4-6+ players.  In a pinch, the deck needs to function as a true Commander deck, so the deck's construction follows the Commander rules of 100 cards, no off-color mana, and one (or more) Legendary creatures to feature as the actual commander.  Lastly, the deck will never be tinkered with again once sent off to Ohio.  Here is the final(ish) decklist.

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My first major reworking involves the anticipated commander.  Originally, the plan was Heartless Hidetsugu, with the deck kinda-sorta built around him.  Unfortunately, to run that commander properly, the deck needs at least a dozen ways to make haste, as well as a few ways to avoid the life loss, and doing so prevented other things I wanted to include.  So, while Heartless Hidetsugu is still in the 99, I now have other options.

Better options.  Far better options.

Krenko, Mob Boss is technically one of them, but to be a Commander, the deck would need far more Goblin support than I want to run, so instead Krenko is here to make tokens for blocking and Skullclamping, not swarming and winning. Besides, for Krenko to work, I would need to cast him every game, which would only happen IF playing Commander, and that is not a guarantee.

That said, Torbran and Toralf are both in the deck, with Torbran edging out the God of Fury by just a bit.  Both like burn, but Torbran supports it better.  Etali, Primal Dawn isn't under consideration, because, like Heartless Hidetsugu, it demands haste to work.  Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded is sweet, being an indestructible bruiser, but I simply prefer Torbran more.

Supporting Torbran are Toralf and Gratuitous Violence, which plays extra nice with Heartless Hidetsugu, popping any player with an even life total - even myself.  If this deck was still focused on Heartless, I would add more damage doublers, but as it isn't, I have more space for other nonsense instead, and am enjoying that freedom.

Loxodon Warhammer and Basilisk Collar can keep me alive and are plain silly on Heartless Hidetsugu.  Still, the bane of burn is excessive lifegain, and while there are several red ways to stop it, I am sticking to just Quakebringer, because he also deals upkeep damage AND hits for at least 5.  

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Being intended for multiplayer games, there are several cards in the 99 geared for that in the deck:  Court of Ire, Frenzied Saddlebrute, Disrupt Decorum, Emberwilde Captain, War's Toll, and Insurrection.  The last is there to win the game if nothing else does, and from experience, Insurrection does win games.  

Initially, I disregarded Court of Ire, but now that Torbran is the Commander, it seems a must, burning for 4 or 9 while Torbran is in play.  Drawing cards off Monarch is a bonus.

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The only thing better than burning folks with sorceries and instants, is doing so multiple times.  At 5 cmc, Pyromancer's Goggles is too expensive to consider ramp, but is just dandy for copying spells.  

I have other means to reuse/copy spells in the deck, but the Goggles promises to be the most reliable - or the most reliably killed, depending on how the game goes.  Increasing Vengeance, Wild Ricochet, Dualcaster Mage, and Radiant Performer all provide alternate means to copy spells.  Backdraft Hellkite is in the deck to provide a hint of recursion, for even more copies.  

(My dream play is flashing in Radiant Performer in response to the Chaos Warp that is also in the 99).   

There are other spells in the deck that I look forward to copying, notably Volcanic Offering, Mana Geyser, Seething Song, and Beacon of Destruction.  

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Drawing cards is difficult for monored, yet it is crucial for a burn deck.   My most reliable source of draw is Skullclamp.  To support it, the deck includes Kher Keep, Krenko, and both Squees.  Skullclamp is backed up by Reforge the Soul, Knollspine Dragon, Electric Revelation, and Monarch. 

Some indirect support lies in Etali, Hoarding Dragon, and Sunbird's Invocation.  In theory, an opposing draw spell can be copied or redirected, as well.

There are no other draw spells in the deck for two reasons. First, I am simply not a fan of red's 'exile and cast this turn' nor 'discarding to draw'.  Second, the Ohio group uses a houserule where a player can eschew a draw to reveal cards from the library top until a land is revealed, with the nonlands randomly shuffled and moved to the bottom of the deck.   So fewer support spells for more business spells.

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The biggest change to the deck has been the addition of Brash Taunter, Stuffy Doll, and a host of support cards for them: Fatal Attraction, Basilisk Collar, Blazing Sunsteel, Fiendlash.  The last two turning more of my creatures into death machines when I inevitably cast one of my mass damage spells. The Collar on Taunter means a free murder machine.  In truth, this might be my favorite use of the Collar, even moreso than on Hidetsugu.

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A card I am on the fence about is Repercussion. It is in the 99, because so much in this deck supports it, yet I only have one card in the deck that might keep me from losing to it, as well: Glacial Chasm.  

There are also two life-gaining equipment, but they're a more unreliable 'defense' than Glacial Chasm.   

Reprint this, WotC! Then make a creature version (with Flash!) and an instant version, as well.

One casting of Hour of Devastation or Storm's Wrath can end games with Repercussion in play, and combat math changes drastically while it is on the battlefield.  All things considered, I can see myself getting burned by this more often than not - which is fine.  I am good with a draw and occasionally being hoisted on my own petard.

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Red answers most problems with direct damage.  What damage cannot remove, is probably an artifact or land.  Enchantments escape scott-free.  Vandalblast and Structural Assault are for the artifacts that bother me, while Volcanic Offering and Ghost Quarter handle problematic lands.  Frankly, all red decks should run Vandalblast and Volcanic Offering - they are THAT useful.  Chaos Warp, Steel Hellkite, and Silverclad Ferocidons (kind of) handle everything else.

Ideally, Silverclad Ferocidons is run alongside Pyrohemia, but Brash Taunter works well, too!

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I'll close with the creatures that are mostly likely to carry the day to victory.  Being Red, there are several dragons and a few armies-in-a-can, backed up by support creatures mentioned earlier.  

Spawn of Thraxes, Hunted Dragon, Stormbreath Dragon, Inferno Titan, Siege-Gang Commander, Beetleback Chief, and Etali, Primal Storm.  This is in addition to the Steel Hellkite, Quakebringer, Silverclad Ferocidons, Backdraft Hellkite, Hoarding Dragon, and Knollspine Dragon mentioned earlier in the post.

I know what you're thinking - "wow, there's a lot of dragons in this deck!" and you wouldn't be wrong.  It turns out flying creatures are solid additions in a creature-heavy meta.  There's enough dragons that I'm tempted to add some Dragon-specific cards to the deck: Dragon's Fire, Spit Flame, Sarkhan's Triumph, Draconic Intervention, Sarkhan's Dragonfire, and Sarkhan, Dragonsoul.  I won't add them, but am sorely tempted.  

A remnant of my original deck's plan of Haste-for-all is Ogre Battledriver and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, both of which provide my team the haste needed to ensure they connect.  I believe that the more players in a game, the more useful Haste becomes, as more players means more opportunities for an unfortunate sorcery to remove the critters before they can swing.  

When there's a whip, there's a way!

As an aside, Purphoros is a bruiser himself, once there is enough devotion in play. Speaking of devotion, Fanatic of Mogis is also in the deck, as it plays nicely in a red permanent-heavy deck, especially when damage-doubling enchantments are involved.  Before Fanatic of Mogis was printed, I used Deathforge Shaman in this role - but that can be too mana-intensive and doesn't blink well.  

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Overall, I've made substantial changes, but I am now happy with the deck, especially the internal synergies it contains.  Average cmc is 4ish, which means I'm unlikely to do much during the early game, which isn't always an issue in games with lots of players, as early threats eat up the early answers.

By no means is this is the perfect Torbran deck, because odds are good it won't be used for traditional Commander games.  Being modeled on such decks, though, takes the deck an important extra step.  If this deck were guaranteed to be used in Commander games, it would include Manabarbs and Pyrohemia, as well as a variety of rocks.  

But, I cannot make that guarantee, so the deck goes without.

There are numerous other cards that could work in the deck, but the good-idea window is closed, both due to cost and due to it getting more difficult to make the cuts.  If interested in what I think those, follow the link to the decklist up near the top, and check out the maybeboard.

Lastly, I will at some point convert my Heartless Hidetsugu to a Torbran deck, using this decklist as a base, so when I write about that, we can compare notes, as that deck will lack budgetary restraints.