The is a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight area of effect burn deck. It ramps out the commander as soon as possible, then uses large burn spells to destroy opponents due to the 4:1 asymmetry in damage. This is further magnified to 16:1 when killing opponents via Repercussion. Resolving Blasphemous Act with repercussion and gisela out deals 52 damage to each opponent for each creature they have, while only taking 3 from each of it's own creatures.
There's not a lot of card advantage, so it's a bit of a glass cannon. The trade off is that a god-hand resolves Gisela on turn 1 and still has 1 card slot left for a burn spell. This can be a very potent deck if players aren't playing enough interaction, mostly on the back of far too many mana rocks.
Burn Control
Approximate Total Cost:
Vandalblast.
notable interactions:
- Via Satyr Firedancer+Repercussion and a damage-doubling effect a Lightning Bolt can deal 30 damage to the opponent: 6 to them, 12 to their creature, and 24 back to them.
- Damage redirection such as Deflecting Palm is a replacement effect just like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. You can re-order them so that the reduction from Gisela is not applied before the prevention, causing Deflecting Palm to see the entire damage amount. Gisela then doubles it on the way back out. This does not work with triggers like Boros Reckoner.
- The damage prevention is rounded up, so increments of 1 damage are inconsequential. This makes Manabarbs entirely one sided.
- Gisela is a good creature, and will be copied or stolen if not removed. I've died to my own Mana Crypt upkeep damage after Gisela was stolen and cloned to deal me 12 damage. I've also died from 40 to an unbuffed Aven Mindcensor after Gisela was stolen and clone by every other player in a 7 player game.
